


The background of being called Faithful

by Rogercat



Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Beleriand, Canon Era, Easterlings, Elf/Human Relationship(s), F/M, Family, First Age, Friendship, Gen, Loyalty, Old Married Couple, new home
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-16 12:48:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17549978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rogercat/pseuds/Rogercat
Summary: Not all the Easterlings betrayed the Elves...





	The background of being called Faithful

**Author's Note:**

> Bór the Faithful (died F.A. 472) was a leader of a tribe of Easterlings during the First Age. He was one of the few leaders of the Eastern Tribes of Men to remain faithful to the Eldar during the Nírnaeth Arnoediad (Battle of Unnumbered Tears). This loyalty came at the cost of his life and the ones of his three sons Borlach, Borlad and Borthand. The elves, grateful for his loyalty, posthumously awarded him the title "Faithful".

First Age, year 463 of the Sun, the lands north of the March of Maedhros: 

 

It was peaceful inside the yurt, where a older couple from the race of Men had a private celebration. 

 

“Lord Maedhros is a great khan, even if he obeys someone else with even greater power. Our people will be safe here,” Bór said while enjoying the sight of his wife Chimeg riding him, a look of pleasure on her face as she looked down to meet his eyes. It was a little sad that she now was too old to have another child from love-making, but with three sons and four daughters they were blessed. 

 

“Yes. It is hard to not see the Elven Khan and become spellbound by him, even if he have done nothing to make it so!” she giggled once their love-making was over and they simply cuddled together. 

 

Chimeg did not blame her husband to become enchanted by the sight of the red haired Elf, even with the scars which had marred his former beauty Maedhros was still handsome in a way which was more common in their former homelands, where battle scars was viewed as a sign of strength. 

 

“If he had been a Man like us, I would have offered one of our granddaughters to become his bride as a sign of loyalty. But he kindly refused, saying that it is not common with the custom of several lesser wives below a senior wife for the Elves, and he is still unmarried despite being the eldest brother.” 

 

That had been rather surprising for them to learn. 

 

“One of those males who either is too focused on warfare, or simply have a difficult history with women,” Chimeg commented, supporting her chin in one hand while using her elbow in the pillow to raise her head up for a better look at her husband. He was already fifty-three years of age, a high age for a man in their sociality, while she was three years his junior. 

“Rather following Maedhros here in a foreign country than risking that our female relatives are kidnapped as brides and our sons and sons-in-law killed so they are widowed.” 

 

That had been one of many reasons to why they had left their home on the steppes so far away in the East, several years ago. Conflicts between clans over the best places to live between their nomadic movements, the endless worry of all the trouble which had its starts in the habit of kidnapping women if the men could not pay a bride price for the girls in marriageable age. 

 

“Well, no reason to stop training our female relatives in self-defense, honey. Who knows if it may be needed one day, if one of the girls are target for someone who can or does not bother to pay a bride price for her?”

 

Even Chimeg herself had dangerously close to be kidnapped from the camp not soon after their wedding and almost taken as an unwilling bride to another man in her youth, had not Bór been seeing her familiar red hair ribbon from the end of her long braid on the unfamiliar horse and ridden after them. Chimeg had managed to buy him some time to arrive, proving that she was not helpless maiden like those often stolen from permanent settings in small villages even further south, by using her fists and actually manage to strike her kidnapper so hard in the face with her closed fist that he had slid off his own horse onto the ground where Bór had killed him.    

 

“Perfectly reasonable, my fearsome mare.” 

 

Bór had never taken another wife over their long marriage, even if he would have had any right to it by their sociality. But Chimeg had a good guess to why her husband had been drawn to Maedhros and willingly become a vassal despite that his own followers was more than enough for Bór to become a Khan in his down right; 

 

The same red hair which she once had worn with pride in her younger years before it had grayed with time, and passed down to almost all of their children. Perhaps it reminded him of time past, before things had become so troublesome in their sociality that they had chosen to leave their homeland and never return, taking both their direct clan of family members and followers with them on the long journey to the unfamiliar lands of East Beleriand where they had met Maedhros. 

 

“Time for sleep now. We have a meeting with Maedhros again tomorrow and it would not do for you not looking your best.” 

 

He agreed with her, kissing her forehead one final time for the day.

**Author's Note:**

> Since I liked the idea of Bór and his tribe of Easterlings being based on the Mongols, I choose to use some RL stuff from them: 
> 
> Khan is a title used sovereign or a military ruler by the Mongols, which I think they might use to address Maedhros in honor of him as a warlord 
> 
> Chimeg is a Mongolian female name which means “ornament”
> 
> Bride kidnapping was actually not unheard off in the times before the Mongolian Empire was founded. Both the mother and wife of Genghis Khan was victims of it.


End file.
